This year’s 2022 NBA regular season was more than just regular. We saw teams come out of nowhere and make runs towards the playoffs. We saw a league filled with top contenders, especially in the 2nd half of the season. And we also saw a star studded league give us a bunch of highlights and things to react to! These are my 3 All NBA teams and why!
All NBA 1st team:
G: Devin Booker
G: Luka Doncic
F: Giannis Antetokounmpo
F: Jayson Tatum
C: Nikola Jokic
Booker: Devin Booker earns his 1st ever, All NBA selection by averaging 27, 5 and 5. Booker had career numbers in points per game, rebounds per game, steals per game and 3pt% (tied). The 3 time All Star was also the best player, on the best team in the NBA during the regular season. When Booker plays, the have an 8.84 point differential per game. When he doesn’t, they have a point differential per game of 1.
Doncic: Luka Doncic gets on this All NBA 1st team list for the 3rd straight season with his 28, 9 and 9 averages this season. Doncic had another amazing scoring season, where he blasted off to rank 3rd in points per game in the entire NBA. While Doncic’s weakness appears to be defense, the numbers say otherwise, as Doncic had the 7th best defensive win shares in the NBA this season!
Antetokounmpo: Giannis Antetokounmpo, without a doubt, deserves to be on this list. This would be Giannis’ 4th straight, All NBA selection.. The Greek Freak averaged 30, 12, 6, 1 and 1 this season, leading the Bucks to 3rd seed in the Eastern Conference despite a plethora of injuries from their top players including from Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez. Giannis was also 2nd in win shares, offensive win shares and win shares per 48 and was 9th in defensive win shares.
Tatum: Jayson Tatum, after taking a break in 2021, is back on the All NBA teams in 2022 after averaging 27, 8 and 4 with 45% shooting. Tatum struggled to start the year, however, had one of the best 2nd half’s of the season for any player in 2022, leading the Celtics to a 34-12 record starting in the New Years. While Tatum’s 45% shooting may seem average, he attempted the most shots in basketball this season, and still made the 4th most shots!
Jokic: When you’re the MVP favorite, you automatically make All NBA 1st team! Nikola Jokic broke records in 2022. He had the best Player Efficiency Rating (PER) in NBA history, ahead of Wilt Chamberlain’s 50 points, 26 rebounds per game season. He also ranked 1st in the NBA in nearly every win shares category and he was top 5-6 in points, rebounds and assists. He’s a center remember! He also became the only player in NBA history to get 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 500 assists in the same season. He dominated the NBA in 2022!
All NBA 2nd team:
G: Ja Morant
G: Stephen Curry
F: LeBron James
F: DeMar DeRozan
C: Joel Embiid
Morant: Ja Morant won Most Improved player in 2022 and not only did he improve, he became one of the best guards in the entire NBA. Morant averaged 27, 6 and 7 on the 2nd best team in the Western Conference in 2022. He ranked 6th in the NBA in points per game and was tied for 14th in assists per game (if he was qualified with 57 games). Morant played great defense as well, as he’s ranked tied for 26th in steals per game. While his numbers don’t look “flashy” if you will, his overall impact puts him here!
Curry: Despite missing the last portion of the season due to injury, Steph still deserves to be on the All NBA 2nd team. He led Golden State to the best record in the NBA to start the season. While Curry’s stats look “underperforming” compared to other seasons, his impact goes off the stat sheet. The reason for his drop-off in points per game is that he was distributing the ball out to other playmakers including 1st time All Star Andrew Wiggins.
James: Despite nearly everything going wrong for the Lakers this season, LeBron James was still able to put up godly numbers, averaging 30, 8 and 6. LeBron has shown no signs of slowing down. He averaged 30+ points per game for the 3rd time in his career and the King also tied his career high in blocks per game with 1.1. And of course, LeBron was 4th in the NBA in PER, something insane to think about considering he’s 37 years old.
DeRozan: Despite a huge drop-off since their incredible start, DeRozan and the Bulls still had a very successful season in 2022, mainly due to DeRozan’s 28, 5 and 5. DeRozan did not prove in San Antonio to be able to win games, unlike the player the Spurs gave up for him Kawhi Leonard. However, DeRozan regained his reputation in Chicago this season, leading them to the #1 seed in the East for the majority of the year, despite a late slope that brought them down to 6th in the East. DeMar earned his spot on the All NBA 2nd team this season!
Embiid: Joel Embiid went from, injury prone to MVP candidate in not a long time! In fact, Embiid had one of the better seasons from a big guy we’ve seen in a decent amount of time (besides Jokic and Giannis also this season). Embiid ranked 3rd in the NBA in PER, and actually had the 8th best PER in a season any player has ever had. He also ranks on the top of nearly every category, including points (1), rebounds (5), blocks (9), Win shares (3), Box +/- (3), etc.
All NBA 3rd team:
G: Chris Paul
G: Trae Young
F: Kevin Durant
F: Draymond Green
C: Karl-Anthony Towns
Paul: Chris Paul without a doubt deserves to make an All NBA team. Paul’s averages of 15, 4, and 11 with 2 steals doesn’t even describe his overall value, despite leading the NBA in assists and coming 1 tenth away from 1st in steals. While Paul had Devin Booker in the same backcourt, he still made a great impact in setting his teammates up and creating their opportunities, impacting winning. In fact, Paul ranks #9 in win shares as a reward of his impact!
Young: Trae Young may not be well-rounded, but he scores the ball at such a high level that he has to make All NBA 3rd team. Young averaged 28 points per game, which ranked him tied for 3rd in the NBA in that category. Young’s Hawks also had to deal with a lot of injuries, including John Collins 28 missed games. Young took nothing and turned into something, including leading Atlanta to finish the season 14-8 which was good enough for the 8th seed in the playoffs.
Durant: Despite talking down on Durant on #17 Cool Sports Network, nothing can deny what he did during the regular season because of the talent he has. Even though he only played 55 games, he averaged nearly 30 points per game with about 1 steal and 1 block while also shooting nearly 50/40/90 splits. His 29.9 points per game in 2022 was his best scoring campaign since his MVP season in 2014, where he led the NBA in scoring. It’s all scoring and efficiency and Durant had that in 2022!
Green: While most people will put Pascal Siakam in this spot, I’m going with Draymond Green for the whole purpose of defense. Green will most likely make his 7th All Defensive team this season for good reason. Green had his 6th season of his career with 1+ steals and 1+ blocks in a season and his first time doing so since 2019. He also made his first All Star team since 2018, by averaging 8, 7 and 7. His overall defensive and playmaking abilities put him on his 3rd ever, All NBA team!
Towns: The Minnesota Timberwolves made the playoffs for the first time since 2018 and it was because of Karl-Anthony Towns, who will be making his first All NBA appearance since 2018 and 2nd in his career. KAT averaged 25, 10 and 4 with 1 steal and 1 block. Do you know what makes that look so insane? Is that he shot 41% from 3 as a center! While he doesn’t rank high in advanced metrics such as win shares, he does rank high in some like PER (10) and Box +/- (14).
This year’s NBA regular season was insane and all 15 of these players made it even more fun!
Chase Coburn
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